Friday, July 6, 2007

Staging on the Navajo Nation - Utah Tour

Matt started his bike tour on Sunday, July 1 at Bitter Spring in northern Arizona. Follow along here for daily updates on his progress through Utah and points beyond. Will he make it all the way to Washington?

Pre-Ride Preparations

We had a relaxing night before the tour started, camping among the cinders at Sunset Crater just north of Flagstaff.

Matt fueled up on pasta, pesto sausage, and giant zucchini (!).

And yes, the crater really is lit up by the sunset.

The next morning we headed up to Bitter Spring, just past The Gap (the town, not the mall store), at the junction of highways 89 and 89A. We found a nice shady spot to stage Matt's bike loading at an empty jewelry stand.

This is last time for a while the bike can be picked up easily.

Fully loaded, it weighs about 90 pounds.

After he was all ready, laden with food (except the Nectar bars he forgot), water (not enough!), and all his gear, Matt headed out to drop down to the Colorado River. His destination was Jacob Lake near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, up on the Kaibab Plateau.

Here's a link to a map of map's progress for the first week. Zoom in to view the towns he has stayed in along the way. I'll be updating the map daily over the next week.Route Map July 1 - 6